Esk War Memorial and Esk Memorial Park

Esk War Memorial and Esk Memorial Park

An opulent bronze, marble and sandstone cenotaph has stood in Esk since 1921, even though it took another 58 years for the surrounding park to be proclaimed as a memorial reserve.

The foundation stone was laid in December 1920 by Colonel Graham Butler, the original medical officer who landed with the Queensland 9th Battalion at Gallipoli.

The Esk Patriotic Committee had started fundraising in 1916. They needed £885, a high price for a community paying a high human cost. Of the 545 men from the Esk district who enlisted, 83 died.

All the names are captured on this monument. Fixed bronze plates on the base bear the names of the dead. The others' names appear on huge bronze plates fixed to recessed marble panels.

Designed by Georg Brockwell Gill of Ipswich, the stonework was executed by masons Frank Williams & Co. Art metalwork was supplied by Wunderlich Ltd of Sydney.

The memorial park, proclaimed in 1979, was extended four years later. It now includes a stone memorial to Captain Patrick Logan, commandant of the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement who was murdered while exploring the Brisbane Valley in 1830, and plaques honouring those who died in WWII and post-1945 conflicts.